Elon Musk's DOGE reportedly gained "full access" to the federal payment system

https://www.theverge.com/news/604762/auto-draft

by belter • 1 year ago

121 36 1 year ago

cocacola1• 1 year ago

From an NYT article:

Access to the system has historically been closely held because it includes sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government.

belter5• 1 year ago

Next... Prepare to be paid in Bitcoin and Azure Credits....

https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-demands-...

fabian2k• 1 year ago

They're going to either shut down payments for certain programs they want to eliminate or they're going to use some kind of AI to detect "fraudulent" payments and block them. And everything without any oversight or recourse.

belter5• 1 year ago

Wait until Musk convinces his employee in the White House, you need an X account for Federal payments....

belter5• 1 year ago

It started... "NTSB forces reporters to get plane crash updates on X" - https://thedesk.net/2025/02/ntsb-moves-plane-crash-press-upd...

bigfatkitten2• 1 year ago

Or just start making their own fraudulent payments. And who will prosecute them? A Trump loyalist A-G?

jonny_eh2• 1 year ago

Who will even know?

apples_oranges• 1 year ago

Depressing to see all this stuff.

jonny_eh2• 1 year ago

I cannot believe so many morons voted for this corruption.

amazingamazing3• 1 year ago

I doubt anyone voted specifically for corruption.

stevenwoo• 1 year ago

That plus the other roughly one third of voters and people who did not bother to register to vote who just sat out this election. Those people are morons and lazy.

esalman• 1 year ago

America runs on honor system. SV tech oligarch do not have honor.

quantified• 1 year ago

Incredible competitive intelligence for the DOGE boys.

derbOac• 1 year ago

I'm surprised there isn't more discussion about this as a security breach.

Let's say hypothetically Musk decided to sell all the private information to a malicious actor. How would we know or not know?

Accountability is more than policy.

anigbrowl• 1 year ago

This and (reportedly) unlimited access to OPM databases and the locking out of federal employees. I highly doubt these DOGE people have security clearances of any kind and the oversight infrastructure of inspectors-general has already been (illegally) dismantled in many departments.

belter5• 1 year ago

These people...Are his SpaceX employees...

"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."

"...The new team at OPM includes software engineers and Brian Bjelde, who joined Musk’s SpaceX venture in 2003 as an avionics engineer before rising to become the company’s vice president of human resources. Bjelde’s role at OPM is that of a senior adviser......Among the group that now runs OPM is Amanda Scales, a former Musk employee, who is now OPM’s chief of staff...

...Another senior adviser is Riccardo Biasini, a former engineer at Tesla and most recently a director at The Boring Company, Musk’s tunnel-building operation in Las Vegas..."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-musk-aides-lock-governm...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:th64qrg...

belter5• 1 year ago

https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_from_sen...

ttyprintk2• 1 year ago

Seems quite difficult to tell the difference between an operation to destabilize USA and Musk’s broad tampering. I would even go further and say that the division caused by Russiagate and its backlash will buy Musk some time before destabilization is mentioned along with connections to Putin.

llamataboot• 1 year ago

Full on musk junta coup huh? Didnt have that on my bingo card exactly. Guess we'll really get to see if theres any rule of law in the US anymore or if its all completely as hollow as its looked for a long time.

efnx• 1 year ago

I’m betting it’s hollow, and the Repubs even back him up all the way to the… …wherever this ends.

dinobones• 1 year ago

I don't understand how Andreessen, Thiel, and the rest of the the "alt right tech" prefer this and "anti woke" to some non-consequential DEI lip service and a functioning government.

Oh well, as long as he's "one of us" right? Who cares about national security, privacy, etc... Trump will pardon him and DOGE will have much win much budget cuts amirite?

thrance• 1 year ago

They're in it mostly for the tax cuts. Oligarchs usually don't care about handing out the country to lunatics if they can make a quick buck out of it. Hell, Thiel is gay, married to a man, and still donated millions to the anti-gay marriage party.

They know their wealth shields them from the negative consequences of their actions.

JumpCrisscross• 1 year ago

in it mostly for the tax cuts

He’s in the Treasury. Not only can he see his companies’ competitors’ payments, he can see their payroll data. We’re a two weeks in and he has read only. It wouldn’t take that much work to issue a few billion dollars in payments and then wipe the slate such that it’s incredibly difficult for anyone to catch on for years.

We’re way past tax cuts. Thiel got played, plainly and simply. (His issue was China. Trump is soft on China. Hell, he’s beating up Canada more than China.) The billionaires in the government are the winners; those out, probably not.

(For what it’s worth, Thiel mostly sat out this election. This was more Andreessen’s deal.)

ttyprintk2• 1 year ago

In interviews, Andreessen seems prepared about a few issues:

1. He was snubbed by the Democratic administration when he deserved an audience. Musk feels this, too. When Biden threw some event for unionized electric car makers, Musk was upset that Tesla wasn’t mentioned. Andreessen talks like those were personality-altering moments.

2. So, he says he was welcomed at the table in the Republican Party. I think history will see this as part of a fight for succession. For us as observers, look for insiders with the nebulous skill of holding the Republican coalition together. As of July, money is no object for the SV organ of the party, which has (like Trump) no ideological persuasion on abortion, health care, trans rights, religion, or guns. Look for useful insiders who can manipulate those issues, especially in a way that’s intuitive to the lower class and frustrating to the educated left.

3. Andreessen talks about employees as risky, indoctrinated and subversive; waiting to ideologically undermine the god of profit motive. This is how he answers questions about DEI and immigration.

4. So, even a CEO with merely 100% power over hiring and metrics of accountability, conveniently the only answer must be a purge. This works for Andreessen and Musk and Thiel now, but they’ll need to manipulate their status for assurances during the next purge. One day Trump won’t be able to resist firing the world’s richest man.

archagon• 1 year ago

Their goal is to literally topple democracy: https://archive.is/iAtnM

bigfatkitten2• 1 year ago

Andreessen and Thiel are grifters concerned only with their own self enrichment. Neither man cares much about those other things except so far as they impact his own profits.

kaaskop• 1 year ago

Why has this been flagged?

throw16180339• 1 year ago

FWIW, most stories about Musk are flagged regardless of the topic. He might be using bots, he's certainly petty enough to do so.

Elon Musk's DOGE reportedly gained "full access" to the federal payment system

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